I Am Human
by Shadoukun1
Summary: Eren wakes up one night realizing that he is having some of his titan features. Not knowing what is happening he decides to leave the survey corps with the help of Jean. Will he begin to lose his humanity? So many questions still not answered! Eren together with Jean and their friends are struggling to find out if Eren is really their savior or the one that will doom them all.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of its characters.**_

_**Author's Notes:**_

_This is my first Shingeki no Kyojin "Attack On Titan" Fanfic and also my second fanfic that I've ever done. So be a little kind to me alright :)  
_

_This fanfic is also based on a SNK roleplay that is still ongoing and since it is pretty long, I thought that it would be fun to take it and write a fan fiction. It is based on the manga but only to chapter 49. And after that we started this and it will not go after the manga after chapter 49. Also respect that it will include my own theories around what could possibly be happening._

Also there might be some wrong spellings in this fanfic and I am sorry for that. English isn't my native language. But I hope you can understand it still.  
This fanfic will also include adventure and a lot of other things. It's mostly about friendship, mystery, supernatural and maybe some romance.

It would be really grateful if I got some reviews to let me know if I should continue on this fanfic barbecue It's quite long so far. And now I didn't want to make the chapter so long but maybe later they will become longer, It depends on the feedback if I get any. So your thoughts really does matter!

And with that I hope you will enjoy this chapter ^^  


* * *

**I Am Human!**

* * *

**_Chapter one._**

It was in the late evening. And the soldiers were heading back to the headquarters of the survey corps, after a long day of work. But it had at least been very calm for once. A rumor had started to spread among the soldiers, that now when everything went so smooth about everything that they soon would try to retake wall Maria.

After all they had finally managed to get Eren back from the kidnapping of the colossal titan and the armored titan. Or as their names was, Bertholdt and Reiner. The both of them had managed to escape on their own after the survey corps managed to free Eren at the cost of many lives.

Eren was still lying on his bed. It sure had been a pretty good day if he had to say it. Sure he had been cleaning a lot from Corporal Levis orders. It was very exhausting to make him satisfied. Every time he thought it looked nice. The Corporal would tell him to redo the whole thing since it wasn't clean enough. But finally he told Eren that it was fine for now but that he would have to make sure it was better the next day.

Another good thing had also happened since he returned back with the others. He had gotten a new room on the second floor, not needing to sleep down in the basement anymore.

He was lying on his back staring up to the roof while trying to think of something to help him sleep. He tried to image himself together with Armin and Mikasa finally going outside the walls to explore the world. When all of this was over, when the titans were finally gone, would they really be able to go and live outside the walls?

That was when his thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain. "Ugh! What the?"  
Yeah a sharp pain that came from his left arm. It was the same arm that his father 5 years ago put an injection in. Which they believed was the cause of his power to turn into a titan.

He decided to take a little walk to see if the pain would disappear. As he walked the pain even started to get worse… until he wasn't even able to stand up. "W-what is this pain!?" he thought to himself as he went down on his knees holding his arm closer to himself.

The time was around 9:00 Pm in the evening and the corridors were silent. It seemed that no one was going to show up and maybe that was for the better thing since Eren didn't want anyone to see him like this.

He sat himself close to the wall with his back trying to not scream cause of the pain that only got worse. He felt like he was about to faint cause of the pain that went through his arm like venom. His vision was beginning to get blurry and just when he thought he was going to black out he could hear a voice.

"Oi… Eren! What are you doing on the floor?" Jean said standing some meters away from Eren. He started to walk closer to check him up. He noticed that something was not right. First he thought Eren had perhaps dropped something and was looking for it but now he could see that Eren was shivering.

"Hey? Eren, what's wrong?"

Eren could hear Jeans voice and he turned up to look him in the face. Jean recoiled when he saw how pale and bad Eren looked. Eren was groaning in pain as he was clutching his arm tightly. Something serious was going on and Jean knew he couldn't just leave him there.

Despite that the both of them have had their battles as rivals and even hating each other. The both of them knew that during times of crisis, would they have to rely on each other and work together. That was something they both would have to do right now.

"Are you hurt somewhere? Is it your arm?" Jean asked, inspecting Eren. There was nothing wrong with him physically that Jean could spot. He sighed and reached out his hand. "Here, let me give you a hand."

Eren agreed to let Jean help him and with his help they managed to get him back to his room. "M-my arm hurts" Eren tried to say but another groaning in pain interrupted. Jean would have to almost take the whole weight of Eren since he was really about to fall over.

"Hey! Don't you dare faint!?" Jean shook Eren in anger as they went through the door to Eren's room.

"Maybe we should get a doctor to check your arm?" Jean grumbled after a long silence. He helped Eren to his bed so Eren was able to sit.

"I-I'll wait until tomorrow. To see if it will go over." His voice was miserable, "I think I might just have stretched it or something like that."

Jean shrugged at Eren's words and snorted back "Alright then! I'm going back to sleep… I was only going to use the toilet anyway. See ya tomorrow at training…" Jean turned his back and went out of the door closing it on his way.

Jean went to use the toilet since it was really the reason why he left his room. After that was done and he was going to go back to his own room he stopped. He was wondering if might shouldn't had left Eren on his own. He did really look sick, but it would be too damn weird if he stayed there.

He headed towards the end of the hall, where his room was. There he noticed that Armin's room had its light turned on. Assuming that Armin was still up he went over to Armins door.

Armin was probably reading a book or something before going to bed, he had done that a lot of times during their trainee years. Jean knocked at the door. "Armin? Uh, I need to talk to you."

He waited. No answer. Armin was probably sleeping when he was reading. He headed to Mikasa's room. She was always up, at least the latest one to sleep usually. "Mikasa? You in there? I need to...talk to you. It's about Eren." He waited. Then the door opened slightly.

He couldn't help but to blush a little when he saw her face looking at him. Her black hair that was chin length was very beautiful. Before she had long hair and he also gave her a compliment about it but it seemed that she didn't really care about his compliment.

Mikasa looked out of her room to see Jeans face. She raised an eyebrow as she spotted him "What is it Jean?" she asked still with the same cold voice she would mostly always use against the people who tried to talk with her.  
Everyone knew that the only people she really did talk with were with Eren and Armin. But it also seemed like she was a friend of Sasha too.

"Uh… Hi Mikasa! Eh... I need to talk to you about Eren. You think he's been acting...weird? Like if he was in pain? Sick or pale?" Jean asked, forcing a crooked worried smile at her.

Mikasa stared at him still with an annoying face... "Jean. What are you talking about? I talked with Eren before and he was fine. He said that he would go to rest earlier."

"Oh... Um Okay then. Sorry for bothering you this late. heh.." The door closed hard in front of him. He sighed.

With that Jean just went back to his room to bed. He couldn't sleep though. He tossed and turned but the only thing shrieking in his mind was Eren. He sighed and closed his eyes.  
It took him a while before he would fall to sleep again.

The pain he felt had gotten so bad that he even grabbed the sheets with the both of his hands. He was going nuts over the pain. "D-damn it!"

The day had been so good, nothing had been wrong or suspicious so why now was everything going down hills? Eren cursed that it was too unfair about this happening now.

He knew that he had to try to get some sleep.  
They were going out the next day to practice on their skills with the others of the survey crops. And he didn't want to miss that...

So he sat up trying to get a better position in his bed. But it was too damn hard to find a comfortable position with his arm hurting like it was going to turn inside out.

It was a burning feeling that went through the inside of his body. He still could feel himself cold sweat while also feeling that he would burn up from the inside.  
Still this feeling felt similar like he had felt it before.

After turning from side to side he found one position where he felt a little bit of comfort.

He squeezed his eyes trying to remember where had felt this pain before. But nothing came to his mind that would make him remember.

He put his right hand on the side of his head. Not for any special reason. For a while he was just lying like that as he began to feel that the pain started to fade away.

With relief he sighed.

But that's when he felt it...something really had changed! He could feel his mouth starting to tremble.

"W-what is t-this!?"

* * *

The sun rose high over survey corps headquarters. It was morning and soon they new members of the survey corps would have their training. This time it was training to improve their titan killing skills that would be needed to take down many titans.

The new members had already been into real action with titans at many points but still they had much to learn. Many still lived thanks to their luck, but luck would sooner or later run out.

Jean was already outside, warming up. Connie was standing next to him, looking dazed.  
He looked around for Eren, but he wasn't there.

"Hey Connie, have you seen Eren?" He asked.

Connie looked at him blankly and shook his head.

"Hey tell the others that I'm going to the bathroom for awhile. I'll be back." Jean shouted as he went straight for the survey corps castle.

Connie nodded and looked as Jean started to run away.

Jean sprinted back to the rooms and looked for Eren's. It was still dark in the corridor. Jean was wondering why the lights weren't on so he turned them on so he could see till the end of the corridor. Eren hadn't been at the training so maybe he was still sick or just sleeping.

He went up to Eren's door and placed his ear next to it. First he thought he heard snoring, so Eren was probably only sleeping, like he thought.  
But when he listened carefully he heard that it wasn't snoring sounds at all!

What he thought was snoring sounds were actually groaning and growls.  
He was about to barge in, but stayed in front of the door and listened carefully.

"Shit Eren..." He whispered to himself. What was the hell was he doing in there?

Eren was still sitting on his bed but more like at the corner of it. He wasn't even looking up when Jean opened the door. That's how shocked he was.

"Hey Eren, what was the sound I heard? How are your doi…." Jean stopped in the middle of the sentence. He still had his mouth open but he just couldn't get any words out of it. For what could he possibly say?

Eren had changed, that was clear.  
His ears were longer and more pointed and his hair was also much longer almost down to his shoulders. He had long bangs that hung down almost covered his eyes.  
While he was looking at the ground, that image would even make Jean think about Eren's titan form. The ears and the hair it sure looked like it.  
But why now? Eren was in human form?! Not titan!? So why did he look almost like his titan form!? What the hell was going on!?

Horrified by the fact Eren looked like a titan in his human form made him almost shout for help. But that wouldn't solve the problem.

He went in closer, but keeping his distance from Eren. "E-Eren?" His voice trembled, not because he was scared, but he was genuinely worried for Eren. He had his gears on and blade in hand. He didn't want to hurt Eren. He wanted to help.

Jean crouched down, trying to get eye leveled with Eren. "Eren...Can you hear me?" He looked back at the door, making sure to close it. He didn't want to drag attention.  
"Eren... Look at me." He tried to sound as calm as possible. He hadn't seen his face. For all he knew it could be his titan face waiting to greet him.

Eren was still in shock... after feeling that his ears had even gotten longer he knew that he was about to transform or something. But it didn't make any sense! What he needed to do to transform was to bite his hand and have a clear goal. But he had none of that, and it scared him so much that he even didn't want to leave the room.

What if anyone saw him? Would that mean that he would be put under the military police and that would mean the death of him. Then suddenly he could feel his hair starting to grow longer and that just made it even worse for him!

But At least nothing more had changed with him. He didn't grow or anything like that.  
But he knew his hair had gotten longer but hair could be cut... what was he going to do about the ears? He also had felt his face with his hands but it seemed to be unchanged.  
But after all he didn't exactly know how he looked when he was in his titan form.

Jean was still standing and backed away from Eren.  
Who knows, Eren might attack at any moment now. Jean had no idea if Eren had control over himself or not. "Shit! What the hell should I do!?"

Outside the castle was training about to end and with guaranteed, Mikasa and Armin would visit Eren like they did after training, especially now that Eren didn't join the morning training.

People would soon start to pour in, getting ready for lunch. Jean could even hear some of them passing by Eren's door. He could hear Connie and Sasha passing by and the both of them seemed cheerful, mostly Sasha since it was time for Lunch.

Jean opened the door a little to just be able to peek out. Then he saw Mikasa and Armin headed towards Eren's room. He panicked. If they saw Eren like this, surely they'd call in Hanji! That'll make the problem worse.

He locked the door and placed a table in front of it. Although he knew that Mikasa would kick the door open with ease.

"Eren. You need to get out of here!" He said, glancing back at Eren.

But Eren just sat there, probably in shock of what had happened. Jean was growing frustrated. "Eren get your ass up. You need to get out of here and I'm serious." He said, now standing in front of Eren.

When Jean hissed against Eren it was like he woke up from a dream.  
Eren turned his face up to see Jean standing in front of him. Jean could see that Eren's face still was like his human form except his eyes were greener...

"J-Jean...what are you doing here?" He said still with a pretty clear voice.

Eren even thought it all had been some kind of weird nightmare that he was having. He watched as Jean placed a table over his door... "Eh..? Why are you doing that?" He asked still thinking that everything happened last night was only a dream.

"Mikasa and Armin are coming. Do you want them to see you like this?!" He whispered.

Their footsteps were getting louder by the minute. "Eren, get up and let's get out of here!" He tugged on Eren's arm harshly.

Eren looked at Jean as he got up from his bed... "Why would I hide from Armin and Mikasa? Jean you are behaving weird?" He wrapped his arms around as if he was mad or something. "What do you mean see me like this?" He asked almost thinking where Jean wanted him to go since he placed a damn table to bock the door. He looked at the window... "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Jean tapped the floor with his foot frustrated."Well if you're going to let them see what I see, then let them." There was a knock on the door.

"Eren! Why weren't you at training today? You missed a lot of things you know!" It was Armin.

Jean stood there, narrowing his eyes. "Eren, open the door." commanded Mikasa.

"Choose a choice Eren." He whispered.

* * *

Eren stared at Jean... not completely knowing why he should hide from Armin and Mikasa. But one thing was clear enough for him... and that was that Jean wasn't joking around.

"I um..." He didn't know exactly why, but he chose to do as Jean told him.  
"S-sorry Armin I didn't feel so good yesterday and I..." Then he remembered... "I didn't feel good so I wanted to rest today and not to be disturbed."

"Uh... Okay Eren! Do you want me to send you some lunch? Have you eaten?" Then Amrin went silent for a while because he looked over at Mikasa.

"Are you sure you're alright Eren?" Mikasa asked.

"No it's fine Mikasa... I'll just rest up a bit and I might see you two later...okay?" Eren replied thinking up something to say. But why did he need to lie to them? He didn't like it, but wait a second why were his bangs covering his face?

Once Jean was sure the two had left he turned back to Eren.

"In case you haven't noticed, you need to get a haircut." He opened the window. "Damn it why is it so bright outside? So, want to go or stay?" Jean asked, sitting on the frame of the window.

"I don't understand... Why is this happening...? Why the hell are my hair longer and my damn ears!?"

He had finally understood that the dream that he had wasn't really a dream... It was reality. With his greener eyes he stared at Jean who was sitting on the frame.

"You want me to leave... but I have no gear. And this the second floor..."

Jean tapped his gear. "You can use mine. I can easily get down through the stairs or something. Don't think that I'm going to carry you because that's gross so let's go with the first choice huh?" He snorted.

Eren took Jeans gear and started to suit up... "I hope nobody sees me...not like this." He suited up very quickly; after all they were trained to being able to do that in case of emergency.

Jean placed his hood back on and headed for the door. "I'll see you downstairs, okay?" He smiled and dragged the table from the door and slipped through it.

Eren looked after him as Jean went through the door.  
Then he turned to the window and opened it.

"Alright Jaeger! Just don't let anyone see you." Then he jumped out and shoot himself using the wires to move perfectly through the air  
At this moment is was a pretty good thing that the castle that they used as their headquarters was surrounded by tall trees, in case of an titan attack would come.

As he flew himself he gazed back thinking if what he did was really the right thing. What if he should have talked with the others, maybe this was just temporarily.

"I have to fix this…I have to get back to normal and to find out why this is happening."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of its characters.**_

* * *

**I Am Human!**

* * *

**_Chapter two._**

Jean slid past through people, hoping to slip without getting any attention from the guards and other members of the survey corps.  
He looked around in the corridor and went to the stairs to reach the bottom.

No one was apparently guarding from outside, making it easier for him to move without being seen. But what he didn't know was that someone saw him. He went to the back of the headquarters where Eren's room was located.

He looked up to see that the window was open, so Eren did really leave after all.  
Jean turned his head to the forest around them and then he could see Eren going through trees with his maneuver gear. He wanted to whistle, but then people would realize someone's outside.  
So Jean quickly followed Eren from ground running for all he could.

Eren used the trees to get further in to the forest.  
Luckily no one had seen him, so he went faster. Jean had not said anything of where they should met up.

But what if Jean had been caught? What would he do then? He gave a small thought if he would then try to find Mikasa or Armin. Armin would have known what to do, like he always knows what would be the better objective. With the wind blowing right through his longer hair that was hitting him in the face, he sighed hoping that everything would soon get back to normal.

On the ground Jean was running after Eren the best he could, it was impossible to catch up to a person using 3D maneuver gear. He turned his head back to see how far in they were in the forest.  
They were pretty far away now.

He whistled as loud as he could to get Eren's attention "EREN! YOOHOO! DOWN HERE!" He shouted.

Eren was a little bit farther in than Jean. But he could take up Jean's whistle.  
So he turned around with the gear and started to go towards the sound of Jean's whistle.  
He then saw him on the ground between some trees and he landed on the ground a few steps beside him.

"You made it!" He was impressed that Jean really was also able to come on foot this deep in into the forest. But he was very pleased that Jean was able to come.

Jean panted and placed his hands on his thighs. "Geez you're going at top speed. Whooh. So…any idea where we should go next? Because I have no idea." He looked around the forest. Once again looking back to make sure no one was watching.

"I don't know either...How am I supposed to..? But you should also maybe head back to headquarters... this is not your problem, so you should not get in trouble because of me..." Eren said while looking up to Jean.

What exactly was he going to do now? If he didn't go back to normal, what would he do? Where would he go? Sure he had some gear now but that would be useless when the gas ran out.

And he didn't want to leave the others.

"Dude are you kidding me? I've come out all the way here and you're telling me to go back? Psh, like hell no. Besides, no one's going to look for me. I'm not important. Besides if I get in trouble, I couldn't care less." He looked up at the sky.

"It's still pretty early but we better find somewhere to stay for the night." He looked around. There were only trees. "Any ideas?"

Eren had to admit he didn't like the thought of being alone... but he could not have believed that Jean of all people would come with him. Jean and he had a long rivalry back-story behind them. So he was a bit confusing about Jean really don't matter about getting into trouble.

"When they notice that I'm gone they will come looking for me...maybe this was just a stupid idea...maybe Hanji will come up with a better solution after she sees how it now… or maybe Commander Erwin or Corporal Levi?" Eren insisted.

Jean sighed. He knew that Eren didn't want to worry others. He's been in his spot before.

"Eren, I don't like you… a matter of fact I hate you. But that doesn't mean that I don't believe in you." Jean looked up at the sky then continued with Eren looking at him with wide eyes.  
"I told you…before. We have to put our trust into each other for to be able to survive."

"By making them see you they'll fuss over you more. You'll feel regretful of it. I know you're regretting this choice now, but later on when you think about it, think of this as an adventure or some sort of damn thing." He snorted.

After Marco's death Jean had changed drastically. He had been known as a selfish soldier that only wanted the good things in life not caring about the other things that they faced. He only had joined the military to be able to go into the military police.

But when he found out Marco had been killed he changed his mind to join the military police, and instead he joined the survey corps even if he feared the titans so much.

"Jean..." was all Eren said. He really started to think he maybe had misjudged Jean for a selfish spoiled prick that did not really care about anyone else except himself.

"Anyway… I think you should take back your gear. But I would appreciate if I could borrow your coat. So I at least could put on the hood...in case we run into some of the guards."

Jean looked back at Eren. "Oh, right. Here you go." He took his coat off and handed it to Eren.  
He helped Eren take off the maneuver gears quickly and placed them on himself.

"How about we head there?" He pointed to one direction. "Maybe we'll get ourselves a cozy house for the night." A small smile came on to Jean's face even if it looked like he forced it to come.

Eren took on the hood over his head. At least it would cover his ears so it was better than nothing.

"I guess we could go that way. But I wonder how long it really will take for them to notice that we are missing. After all they would be expecting us at the dinner." Just by talking about food made him realize he hasn't eaten since yesterday around dinner time.

"Yeah you're right. But let's just try our best okay? Besides, we might get our hands on some goodies while we're at it." Jean started to walk slowly, his legs still tired from running.

"This is going to be a long night." He mumbled to himself.

* * *

Eren followed him as they went on walking. He turned his face to look back as they could still see the castle roof, was this really the right choice? He wondered to himself but kept on going.

He was sure that the survey corps didn't want him dead. But they would be forced to report to the capital and if anything about this would be said... he would get killed.  
So now he had no choice but to at least stay out of there.

"I think we at least have a few hours before they will notice that we're gone."

"So what if they notice. Are they seriously going to barge in houses to find us?"  
The two walked for a long time and evening was approaching when they came to a village. It was still lively; people were still selling food and items on the roads.

"Night sellers huh? Neat! Want to buy some food Eren? I'm pretty hungry" Jean suggested.

Eren seemed surprised. He didn't think that there would really be people this close to the survey corps castle. But he hadn't really explored the surroundings so much around here. Sure they were hours away from headquarters but still.

"Alright... but do we even have any money? But I guess we could use that we are soldiers, right?" He could soon even hear his stomach yelling for food. He really was hungry.

"Yeah sure! I have a few coins in my pocket." Jean pulled out a small pouch, inside were about 10 gold coins. "Connie gave me some, don't ask why."

Jean went to a stall that sold some bread. "Excuse me ma'am, how much for two loaves of bread?" He asked politely. He and the woman bargained for a while until he told her that he was a soldier. Then she gave two loaves of bread and some water and. "I-If I give you this...will you guarantee us the titan's won't come into this wall?" The woman asked.

Jean looked at the woman. So this was how scared people were. "Yes ma'am, we're trying our best to keep those pasty titans away. Thank you for the food." Jean thanked.

It seemed the village was also really close to wall Rose. They sure had been walking a long time to get here from the headquarters.

Eren was standing some distance away looking as Jean talked with the woman. He could see that she even gave him bread and what looked like water. He didn't really hear so much what they said but he picked up some words. That jean said he was a soldier and that they protected the walls from titans.

"Yeah... we´re protecting the walls but now we can't…" He almost felt a bit paranoid as people kept looking at him. Sure he was wearing his hood. He guessed it was just strange to see a soldier without gear that wore a hood.

Jean returned back to Eren "Ta-da! We got ourselves food, now for shelter. C'mon we need all the rest we can or we won't be able to walk tomorrow." He tugged Eren along with him into the darker part of the village.

"Help me check if the houses are empty or not. Check through the windows. There must be at least one house with no one in it."

There were many abandoned houses in these districts. Eren himself had been once sleeping in them in Trost district when he, Mikasa and Armin first got there and had nowhere to go.

"Um Jean, have you been in this small village before? It seems like you really know what you´re doing?" He asked when they went through many fallen houses. Eren was very sure that some of those houses could be used by criminals. That gladly would take down two younger soldiers and steal their gears to sell on the black market.

"We need to be careful."

"I've been through here lots of times with the others when we had to shop for food and other things to the survey corps. Now when I think about it, there was one house that I used to go in to rest…" He looked around. It was dark really starting to get dark.

"Damn it! I can't really see in the dark." He squinted. The two walked further into the darkness of the village.

"Huh, let's just go here." Jean took a sharp turn that led them to a house. The house was not in good shape, partly fallen but it was alright for them at least. "How about we just stay here for the night eh?"

"I guess it should be fine... better than sleeping on the streets, after all. Let's hope no one uses it as some kind of hide place." They went in and they to watch where they put their feet.

The house was really in bad shape and you could even feel the smell of rot. The house was clearly rotten which made it even dangerous since it could fall over.  
"Hey can you give me some bread..." Eren was so hungry he could eat a horse...well a real horse.  
"Alright, here." He handed a piece of bread to Eren. He took some for himself and drank some water. "Ahhh It's so good to eat and drink again." He sat on the floor making it creak and squeak.

"Geez this house is a noisy one." He said, munching on the bread. He looked at Eren who was enjoying the bread too.

"Are you sure this was the house you used to rest in?" He asked while taking a big bite of bread. It sure tasted very good especially when you are very hungry. It surely was starting to get dark outside quickly, but they had after all been walking very long to reach this village.

"Yep I think this was the house, but too me they all look the same." He finished with a big yawn and ate up what was left of his bread.

"Well, I'm going to go and do a quick night shift ok? You go and rest." He grabbed his blade and went outside. It was colder now, and silent. Though he had the feeling someone was watching him.

"Alright then I guess I'll wait here..." He replied while finishing his bread in a hurry to remove his hood since none was around. Would have been good if he had a mirror... too see how bad it looked. He put his healthy hand on his left ear. "Still long and pointy" he sighed.

Jean turned his head left and right. No one was there. But he was sure someone had been watching them. Someone he couldn't see. He sighed thinking that he probably was getting insane and delusional. "Well if there's no one around I'll just get back." He sighed and went back inside.

* * *

~Back at the survey corps headquarters. ~  
Everyone was talking. Rumors erupted. Mikasa and Armin were worried sick about Eren. Without Eren, the gang felt like they had lost their heart and soul. The Corporal himself was willing to find Eren and get him back. Everyone was.

They were rumors that he even had been kidnapped by other titan shifters or worse, killed.  
Armin and Mikasa did also inform the others that Eren had been talking with them in the morning and that he said he was sick.

They started to send out search teams looking everywhere. They sure started to worry, if Eren would get lost so would the small hope of humanity. It was really Connie who finally opened his mouth pointing out that also Jean seemed to be missing too.

"M-Mikasa what do we do if Eren doesn't come back? Surely the teams will find him...right?" Armin asked.

Everyone was practically up that night, searching everywhere, in the forest, in the castle and the stables. But either Jean or Eren could be found.

Yet the survey corps hadn't heard the news about something terrible happening in the capital in wall Shina. Also they had their hands full not knowing that they were watched.  
In the forest three people were watching them.

"It seems…Eren is missing, and that would just be perfect for us." A voice belonging to a man said to the other two standing beside him.

Eren was sitting against the wall almost halfway to sleep. It sure had been a long day for the two of them, at least he hadn't changed anymore that he knew about. Still his face was the same and that was a relief since the hood could not hide his whole face only his ears and a little bit of his hair.

Jean still hadn't returned from his walk but at this moment… he did really trust Jean to come back.

Meanwhile, Jean continued his walk in the village just to get some fresh air. Just when he was about to return to the house he picked up some voices. Voices that he recognized!

"Shit! They're here! Guess that's how quick they found out that Eren's gone." Jean needed to be sure it was them, so he went on the rooftop and crouched down. He was right. Men with lighted torches, some on horses some on foot, were holding blades and scouting the village. Some were even using the maneuver gears to get along. They were coming in the direction of where he and Eren were at.

"Fuck fuck fuck! I need to do something to drive them off. We can't go blindly at night with no torch." Jean quickly jumped off to another roof and another to get closer to the search team.  
He made small disturbing noises to get their attention. It made them assume someone was running on the roofs. The soldiers fell for the bait that Jean made up and some of them surely went the wrong way.  
He then jumped down and made noises along alley, leading the team to a different place. "That'll be enough for us to get a head start, not so much but at least a little. So that he managed to get back to the rotten house.

"Eren! Please wake up!" He whispered in Eren's ear, trying to be quiet in case anyone was nearby.

Eren woke up immediately when Jean whispered in his ear. "Hey! That tickles!" Eren replied as he started to wake up greeting Jean with a small yawn. But he became aware of Jeans serious expression. "Huh is something going on Jean?" He got up on his feet waiting to hear what Jean would tell him.

Later on the soldiers part they had started to go through houses in their search. There were not so many of them maybe only 8 that was this close but still if they would find them more soldiers would soon appear.

"It's the soldiers. A search party's here and they're going to want to find us. We need to move, now!" Jean said, helping Eren get up. "They're close by, so we should stay as quiet and unseen as possible."

"Eh! Are you serious? Then they must have noticed that we are missing." Eren went to look out from a small window at the side. It clearly was dark outside and it was only a few lights that could help, but at this quarter there wasn't so much.

"So we need to move or should we try to hide in this house? Maybe there is like some basement or anything?"

"Ah! Good idea. Usually the basement is the strongest place in the house. People would never think of going to creepy basements! C'mon." He dragged Eren to the back of the house and found the basement door. He opened it, revealing stairs going deep down. He let Eren go down first and then he went in and closed the doors tightly. "Hey, are there any torches around here?"

"It's so dark that I even can't see my hand that's right in front of me!"

They kept on going down the stairs. The stairs made a small cracking sound when you put your foot on them.

Eren kept on walking but then suddenly one stair budged and he wasn't fast enough. The stair started to gave in and he fell with it. He busted right through the staircase and kept on falling down. "AAAAH!" He yelled while falling against the ground.

"Eren? Eren! Eren are you- SHIT FUCK SHITING FUCK" He fell along with Eren and hit something hard. "Fuck! That hurt! Eren? You okay?" He called out.

Eren also fell to the ground first and hit it with a big smash! But he had luck that he didn't fell on anything dangerous, but he got some small cuts, thanks to the splinters coming from the stair.

"Ow!" He was still lying on the floor when he could hear Jean also falling down. Right on top on him he landed. At least Jean got a soft landing...but he was really heavy for Eren.

Jean looked and saw he was on top of Eren. "Shit! Sorry Eren." He rolled off and laid himself on his back. "The fuck is wrong with the stairs?" He grunted angrily.

"I think they are just old Jean...old things intend to break you know." Eren got back up on his feet and began to wipe away the dust from his clothes. "Anything broken?" He asked.

He knew himself that he would properly heal if he hurt himself but Jean wouldn't.

Jean sat up, checking his body and then winced. "Think my arm got hurt." He moved his left arm slowly, pain surging through it. "Ow...I think I twisted something."

"At least it isn't broken... a good thing you landed on me."

It was very dark in the basement but their eyes at least started to accustom to it, so they could see small shapes. "I hope no one heard that...when we fell."  
"This place is underground! No way, that they would have heard us!" He said, patting off dust from his shoulder. "Can you see anything Eren? I can only see barrels and boxes." He squinted.  
"No. Not really..." Eren also tried to see but nothing they could use.

"You closed the door right?" He asked Jean. While going a little deeper into the room. It would have been good if they were able to find some light.

"Yep, I closed the door." Jean walked close to the walls, hoping to find a lighter or torch on the wall.

"This basement sure is" Eren kept close to Jean. He didn't want to lose him in this darkness. "At least we got away from the soldiers…" He whispered in the dark while touching the wall to support him. He didn't want to step in some hole or anything, deep. "I wonder if it leads to somewhere?"

The place sure was bigger than he thought a basement would be.  
Jean grabbed aimlessly when he felt a cone like shape on the wall.  
"Aha! This could be a torch holder. Now to find a lighter..." He took the cone off from the wall and brought it along with him. "Do you know how to light a fire?"

"We have been taught that in our trainee days Jean. But we need some stones or wood to make a sparkle... and I don't think we have any. There must be some way for them to get a fire to burn?"

"Right. Would some wood do? We can find lots of spare wood here. There must be flammable things here?" He went through the junk that were in the boxes and all over on the floor. He managed to find a few twigs and planks but nothing more. "You find anything?" he shouted back.

Eren also began to look around, searching. "I think we could use these." He held up also some very dry wood. "At least it seems the rain has not been able to bust in and ruin the wood here." He went back to Jean and put it on the ground. "Hmm let's see what we can do...I'm going to try to make some sparkles."

"Alright! I'll try to gather some more wood, or at least look for some stuff." Jean handed a few sticks to Eren and left a pile on the floor and went off deeper into the basement.

It was cold but had warmth essence with it. The basement was nothing but wooden floor and some concrete floor and lots of tools lying on the floor. So he had to watch out, not stepping on any spikes.

He could hear a small squeak coming under him and as he turned to look he could see small eyes looking at him.

Just some rats running around on the ground, nothing more.

Eren kept on working on the fire. If they only could get a little bit it of sparkles it would help to light up the torch that Jean had found. He also could soon see small eyes around in the room. Rats also looking for food.

Jean continued to go deeper into the basement, only finding the same things over and over again.

"Ah shit, nothing good here." He sighed. He rummaged through a box to find only a blanket and a few pillows. He brought them back to Eren, making a small bedding enough for the two. "Any luck?"

Eren sat on his knees still working with the wood to make a fire. "Nothing so far..." He replied while trying to get some sparkles out of the wood."It also seems like we have some company." He nodded over to the rats that still kept their distance.

"Ah, rats. Don't worry as long as we have weapons, they won't even come near us! Besides, we still have plenty of bread, we can share with them." He laughed. Was he getting insane? Sharing, with rats? Really!

He sat on the floor next to Eren, trying to also help him make a fire. But he had missed that training with fire because he thought this day would never have come.

Eren gave a small laugh at Jeans words. "Yeah it's not only us who will starve..." He kept on going until a small small sparkle appeared.

"YES!" Only that gave him even more motivation to keep going. He went faster until even more sparkles started to come. "Get ready with the torch!" Finally something started to look bright on the other hand. Jean held the torch close to the fire and it lit up instantly.

"Woo hoo! We got fire!" He laughed giddily and held the torch up high. He quickly stood up and walked around with the torch. He could see at least more now! "Yes! Now we can see what's ahead of us!"

Eren wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm.  
"Phew... we made it." He thought to himself. It seemed that the two of them really could work together after all.

"Hey Jean, I guess we aren't such a bad team after all." He went up on his feet again. Now when they finally were able to see maybe they could explore the basement even more. But also now they would need to keep the fire alive until morning.

"Ha ha you're right! Maybe being stuck with you isn't such a bad idea." Jean said. "Look at this basement, it's still in good shape actually. There are so much things here, look! Plates, tools, paper. Looks like someone lived their life here."

Eren also started to look around. The place was even bigger than he first had thought.

"You´re right about that." It did really look like that someone had been living here. It made him think back to his own house back in the now fallen Shiganshina district. He knew that he someday had to return back there to his own basement. He grabbed the key still hanging around his neck. "Someday..."

Jean held the torch higher, so he could see more. Yes, the place was really big. "Maybe the basement leads somewhere outside? I don't know but my old basement back in Trost used to have an exit somewhere." Jean looked around more.

He saw broken glass on the floor and rusty swords. Someone had been fighting here, or at least practicing. Eren could also see the rusty blades lying on the floor. He grabbed one of them.

"I guess we could use them. Even if they are not like our gear blades... at least it's something."

He began to inspect the swords they sure was rusty but better than nothing he guessed. "There must have been some time since someone was down here."

Jean also studied the swords. "Not bad, actually. Guess we can use this for our blades." He picked up a sword. It looked like a prototype of the blades they had in the military. Maybe someone down here was making their own blades? Perhaps they were the suppliers living underground. "Just hope it doesn't rip apart from the rust."

"Let's hope so..." Eren still had to follow Jean since he was the one with the torch, without it they wouldn't be able to see anything. "Let's investigate more and see where this hallway will lead to."

They both started to walk even further in. It sure was bigger than he would have thought, like it was a shelter. While walking Eren started to feel... a little bit dizzy again... maybe because of the fall.

The flame seemed to falter at times and to flicker constantly, worrying Jean. What if the fire went out? They'd have to make more flames. "Looks like there are two paths, here." Jean pointed out. It was true. The tunnels lead to two separate halls. He looked at Eren. "Reminds me of the maze test we took back in our trainee days huh?"

"Yeah... so we split now or we both take one?" Eren asked looking at the both paths. "If we split I'll take the left one. I've always heard that when you are unsure which direction you should take, always take the left one."

"Alright, but if you see a dead end come back here. Do you need the torch? I'm fine without one I guess." He offered the torch to Eren.

"No it's alright... You should be the one to have it. After all I've never heard that horses can see in the dark." He teased.  
After all he and Jean still had their differences, they had been in a lot of fights but Eren always seemed to win when it came to combat.

Jean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Don't come running back for light or scream like a little girl in there Jaeger." He snorted and entered the hall way. Eren snorted back "same to you horse-face!"  
Jean's hallway was tight and hard to breathe in. He was never claustrophobic, but now he knew how claustrophobic felt like. The space was so tight that he could only stretch half the length of his arm. "Damn those small hallways." He grunted.

Eren also went into a pretty small hallway. But it seemed at least a little bigger. He was able to fit thanks to that he wasn't as large as Jean. He managed to easy get pass until he even was able to walk straight. "Not so bad." He thought to himself. There was pretty much dust in the air that made him cough.

The hall seemed to get smaller. At least that's what Jean thought, until he reached the end of the hall. It was a dead end, or so he thought. "Dead end huh? Well, got to go back." But as he turned, the ground under him gave away. "What the-" He had no choice but to jump. He lunged forward towards the edge and he got hold of it with his fingers. But there was no use. He couldn't pull himself up so carefully he let go.  
To his surprise he landed on concrete floor.

* * *

"The plan, is it ready?" The boy asked. "Yes. We must wait until night though. They'd never suspect it." Said a girl and pulls her hand through her hair.  
"A-are you sure we should do this?" Asked another boy more nervously.

"They took what belonged to us, now we must return it." The girl replied a bit irritated.  
"Yeah, we have failed three times already… and you even got captured. You should be thankful we came back and managed to save you!" the boy said. The girl snorted "I never asked of you two to come back for me…"

* * *

Eren kept on walking for what felt like an eternity, still not going anywhere. It felt like the tunnel would never end.

He wondered if maybe if have stuck to Jean. At least he would had someone to talk with... after walking even more he could feel his head starting to get a little dizzy again, he even had to lean against the wall. "Come on...not again..."

Jean had to take a break from his walk. He decided to just take a short break by sitting on the ground against the wall. He sat there for a minute or so, letting his arm cool down. The floor was cold, almost ice cold. Sitting there, he thought of Eren and back to their other friends in the survey corps.

Eren also was sitting on the floor by now. Trying to get back to his feet but it was not any use right now. He could even see Jean in his head laughing at him for how pathetic he was, not even being able to stand on his feet.

"I'll show you!" He snorted even more upset than he should be. Jean had after all maybe saved him and now Eren was in depth for that. "Stupid titan DNA or whatever." he hissed forcing himself up to his feet.

At the same time a floor down Jean had begun to inspect himself. His hair was a mess and tangled up, his skin was also fouled and red patches covered his arms and legs. His jacket almost torn from every corner and his shirt ripped in places. He was a disaster. He kept walking through, only to find an opening leading to another house. He couldn't risk it. He needed to find out if Eren was ok.

Still weak Eren kept on going. It was his damn stubbornness that helped him go on. Like hell that he was going to get stuck here, he had to keep on going. That's when he froze! He could hear something... something small.

His now pointed ears picked up something and he turned his head against the direction from what he heard it from. "Jean? Is that you!?" He yelled out loud.

Jean was up on his feet again and started to go back. He looked around, dazed. When he heard someone scream, he instantly thought it was Eren.

"Eren! Are you okay?" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Three shadows had been following the survey corps to the village where Jean and Eren were in.

"Ready?" The girl sheathed a small shard in her hand. The two boys also held a shard to their hands. "One...Two...Three…!" The three cut their hands with the shards and a flash of lightning struck in the small village. Everyone was awaken by this and surprised. A titan broke through. Not just one, but three!

The whole ground just started to shake. Boulders from the roof started to just fall down. Eren managed to dodge just in time or else he would have been crushed.

"WHAT THE!?" He yelled while throwing him at the side. "Just what the hell is going on?!" He thought to himself as he kept on running with falling boulders around him. If he didn't keep moving he would get crushed just like a fly. He swore that he had heard some kind of explosion before. There was something there! Something was happening in this village!

As the ground shook, Jean ran through the corridors. He managed to get back to the entrance of his hall but Eren was nowhere to be seen. "The fuck is going on?!" He held on to a pillar and hoped the roof wouldn't fall on him.

The soldiers scrambled out of bed to get their gears on. They had no chance but to strike now, in the dark, when they're sleepy. The Commander, Corporal and the squad leaders were already awaken, in the village during their search. Many of them headed out to organize the soldiers but they were scattered, defenseless and sleepy.

Amidst the confusion, Mikasa and Armin were geared up and ready to act. Now that Eren wasn't with them and there were no other titan shifter to help and the best 3DMG user was gone too. So they were practically losing hope. The three titans stomped around, breaking everything it was clear that they were looking for something.

They could soon understand it was the colossal titan together with the armored and the female titan. Unbelievable! The female titan had been captured so how was it possible? That she was here together with the other two breaking everything around the small village, trying to find something, or rather, someone!


End file.
